1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a method and system to be utilized in data processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems are systems that manipulate, process, and store data and are notorious within the art. Personal computer systems, and their associated subsystems, constitute well known species of data processing systems.
Personal computer systems typically include a motherboard for mounting at least one microprocessor and other application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), such as memory controllers, input/output (I/O) controllers, and the like. Most motherboards include slots for additional adapter cards to provide additional function to the computer system. Typical functions that a user might add to a computer include additional microprocessors, additional memory, fax/modem capability, sound cards, graphics cards, or the like. The slots included on the motherboard generally include in-line electrical connectors having electrically conductive lands which receive exposed tabs on the adapter cards. The lands are connected to wiring layers, which in turn are connected to a bus that allows the cards to communicate with the microprocessor or other components in the system.
A personal computer system may include many different types of buses to link the various components of the system. Examples of such buses are a xe2x80x9clocal busxe2x80x9d0 which connects one or more microprocessors to the main memory, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus for sound cards and modems, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) for pointing devices, scanners, and digital cameras, a Fire Wire (IEEE-1394) for digital video cameras and high-speed storage drives, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus for graphics cards, SCSI adapters, sound cards, and other peripheral devices such as isochronous devices, network cards, and printer devices.
As noted, a computer system may include a PCI bus. A PCI bus is a bus compliant with the PCI bus standard promulgated by the PCI special interest group (an unincorporated association of members of the microcomputer industry set up for the purpose of monitoring and enhancing the development of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) architecture). Specific PCI standards are available within PCI Spec. Rev. 2.1, available from the PCI special interest group, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Under the PCI bus specification, peripheral components can directly connect to a PCI bus without the need for glue logic. Thus, PCI is designed to provide a bus specification under which high-performance peripheral devices, such as graphics devices and hard disk drives, can be coupled to the CPU, thereby permitting these high-performance peripheral devices to avoid the general access latency and the bandwidth constraints that would have occurred if these peripheral devices were connected to a low speed peripheral bus.
The PCI bus standard is extremely extensive, and specifies aspects of many components related to the PCI standard. One such aspect is the physical form (e.g., physical height, width and depth) of each PCI specified component. Examples of PCI components which have specified xe2x80x9cform factorsxe2x80x9d are PCI sockets, or slots, which are utilized to allow PCI cards (devices) to plug into, or interface with, any particular PCI bus.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the various specified form factors for PCI cards and slots are not very amenable for implementation in smaller, more compact computers (e.g., small desktop, laptop, notebook, and sub-notebook computers). There has therefore been a move within the industry to implement the capabilities of PCI within smaller and smaller form factors. Examples of such movement are the Compact PCI and Small PCI standards, well known to those within the art.
A latest movement toward smaller form factors has been termed xe2x80x9cmini-PCIxe2x80x9d. The mini-PCI standard is being created to allow PCI functionality to be deployed in very small volume enclosures, such as small desktop, laptop, notebook, and sub-notebook computers. The mini-PCI standard is contained within the Mini PCI Specification, Revision 0.8 (16 Mar. 1999) (xe2x80x9cmini-PCI specificationxe2x80x9d), hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Mini-PCI is being designed to be an internal, xe2x80x9cunder-the-coversxe2x80x9d solution for hardware designers and OEMs. Under the Mini-PCI standard, it is envisioned that Mini-Cards are removable and upgradadable with xe2x80x9cnew technology cards,xe2x80x9d but it is envisioned that such removal and upgrade will be performed by a qualified technician. (One reason that this is true is that the Mini-PCI specification assumes that the Mini-PCI cards will be installed on a motherboard, and thus swapping out a Mini-PCI card will require that the main board be accessed and manipulated.) Consequently, Mini-PCI does not provide for the robust, encased design of a swappable, end-user solution such as standard PCI sockets and standard PCI cards.
A system and method have been invented which provide Mini-PCI with a robust, encased design of a swappable, end-user solution analogous to that available with standard PCI sockets and standard PCI cards. In one embodiment, the method and system include a modular bay having a removable-card connector. In another embodiment, the method and system further include a removable card. In yet another embodiment, the method and system include a mini-Peripheral Component Interconnect connector, and a modular bay enclosure containing the mini-Peripheral Component Interconnect connector.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth below.